Beggar

Chapter 9: "What will you do to me?"

I sat up, he went down to undo my feet.
"Or, you want to see if I would try to leave. And I'm rather curious if you would stop me."

Sayter looked up at me, but said nothing.
I tried again. "What makes you so sure I won't escape?"

This time he did answer.
"If I told you the truth, you'd be too pissy with me, realize I'm right and ignore me."
A flash of white, wicked teeth.
"I enjoy our little fights too much, and am much too important to be ignored."

Ф

Sayter shifted over in his sleep, he left go of my waist and tiredly turned to the other side of the bed. Every door was unlocked, I wasn't chained to this bed, I could escape.

But wouldn't. He was right.

And that would be his greatest downfall.

I tiptoed out of the room, he barely shifted when I opened the door. Stalking to the library, I needed Soul Seller if I was going to do this right. Make him pay for all he has done to me.

Eventually I did retrieve the book and find an empty bathroom as far from Sayter as possible. A mirror, I needed a mirror.

I recited the ritual, scanned the rules.
Do not lie.
Do not look away.
Do not yell
Do not invite it out.

That word clung to me. It.
I suppose something of the wicked didn't have to proclaim a gender or a species it didn't seem fit to the human world. I took a blade I slid from the kitchen and cut a sliver of flesh from my arm to leave in the sink.

And I sang.
The little song from the book was familiar but far away, and gods my voice was terrible. I waited when I was finished. Maybe I should of chanted, maybe I should read the spell over.

No.

Do not look away.

It had said that, so I would apply.
After a moment, after a minute, I came back from dozing off, and I could swear by the Gods my eye color was different. It was orange?

And my lips moved when I did not.
"Victoria."

That was— it was speaking to me. No, I was speaking to me. My face, to me through the mirror.

Do not look away.

"I am Victoria." I said, as if I was trying to convince both of us.

I— no, it, smirked. "So am I."

I shook my head, my reflection didn't follow.
"No, you're a demon. And I'm here to make a bargain."

It clicked its tongue. I now understand that word. It.

"Demons are emotion, they run on it as such. They take what they can get because they are desperate for one specific taste, they have no fun with themselves. Over and over with the same thing, always others suffering. For that they damn themselves, and never change. I am not a demon, something mindless and pitiful. I dont have to stand for something, I could take what I want but instead I serve myself for myself."

Interesting. Here not for the delicacy of keeping my soul, but for the fun of the task.
"Where are you from?"

It smirked. "I'd love to show you someday, if we agree on terms."